gunboat diplomacy

noun

1. diplomatic relations involving the use or threat of military force, especially by a powerful nation against a weaker one.

gunboat diplomacy

noun

1. diplomacy conducted by threats of military intervention, esp by a major power against a militarily weak state

gunboat diplomacy

1. A policy toward a foreign country that depends on the use, or threat of the use, of arms. (See big stick diplomacy.)

Word History and Origins

Origin of gunboat diplomacy¹

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

The secretary of State sidestepped a question about whether the action, which critics denounced as illegal under international law, signaled a return to “gunboat diplomacy” in a region where U.S. interventions have historically stoked resentment.

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The reaction among our Latin American neighbors to this modern edition of gunboat diplomacy was, to say the least, decidedly negative.

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In the early 2000s, the Danes twice dispatched frigates with soldiers to the island, in what Robert Huebert, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, called an example of gunboat diplomacy.

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With the era of gunboat diplomacy long over, the U.S. is unlikely to deploy troops in the aftermath of the brazen slaying Wednesday of President Jovenel Moïse in an overnight raid at his home.

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Once upon a distant time, this would have been called "gunboat diplomacy" and naval vessels would have been the instruments of choice for such missions.

Read more on Salon