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Examples of gunboat diplomacy in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
As the name suggests, gunboat diplomacy is used to pursue diplomatic aims, not military ones.
—Lauren Kahn, Foreign Affairs, 6 June 2023
Related Story Putin Pulls Russia Back from New START Arms Treaty SSBNs don’t really lend themselves to old-school gunboat diplomacy.
—Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 11 May 2023
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.
—Amanda Coletta, Washington Post, 14 June 2022
Through gunboat diplomacy, France forced Haiti to agree to an enormous indemnity in exchange for recognition.
—Patrick Iber, The New Republic, 11 Jan. 2022
On May 5, the day before the elections, Johnson staged an amateur reenactors’ version of nineteenth-century gunboat diplomacy.
—Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books, 13 May 2021
The result is that Mr. Erdoğan is the latest exemplar of the effectiveness of gunboat diplomacy, even as traditional military players withdraw from the field.
—Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Nov. 2020
In the 18th century, imperial Britain was able to practice gunboat diplomacy across Africa and the Indian subcontinent, taking direct administrative control of vast swaths of the world.
—Parag Khanna, Quartz, 16 Dec. 2019
Whether this was a way of proving his commitment or a less-than-subtle suggestion of gunboat diplomacy, the ploy worked.
—Yoni Wilkenfeld, Quartz, 6 Nov. 2019
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Word History
First Known Use
1927, in the meaning defined above
Time Traveler
The first known use of gunboat diplomacy was
in 1927
Dictionary Entries Near gunboat diplomacy
Cite this Entry
“Gunboat diplomacy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gunboat%20diplomacy. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.
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