escalatory

[es-kuh-luh-tawr-ee]

adjective

1. tending to escalate or increase by increments, especially in contexts of reciprocal aggression, hostility, or arms buildups.

Example Sentences

Unlike clear-cut export controls, these disguised measures are harder to manage and pose escalatory risks.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But any suggestion of Nato hitting Russian targets – kinetically, as opposed to digitally in cyberspace – would be incredibly risky and escalatory.

Read more on BBC

Policymakers should therefore reassess the conventional wisdom that more disruptive or deterrence-oriented cyber operations against China would be escalatory.

Read more on Barron's

"I'm not so hopeful that a technical mechanism will really address the fundamental drivers of this escalatory cycle," he admitted.

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But Mr. Putin has been lobbing cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine for years, and there’s nothing escalatory about return fire.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal