Examples of gunboat diplomacy in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Close to 200 years after first being used to assert geopolitical dominance, gunboat diplomacy is very much alive and well.
—
Andrew Latham, The Conversation, 20 Oct. 2025
Trump has already brought back gunboat diplomacy by using the threat of force to coerce other countries into signing treaties on his terms; military threats helped obtain concessions from Canada and Mexico.
—Oona A. Hathaway, Foreign Affairs, 24 June 2025
We are now being told to believe in an America that can chart its course selfishly—from Greenland to Panama to Canada to Gaza—almost entirely on the basis of a surreal mixture of Manifest Destiny, gunboat diplomacy, and golf resort and tournament planning.
—Penny Abeywardena, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2025
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
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Andrew Latham, The Conversation, 20 Oct. 2025
Trump has already brought back gunboat diplomacy by using the threat of force to coerce other countries into signing treaties on his terms; military threats helped obtain concessions from Canada and Mexico.
—Oona A. Hathaway, Foreign Affairs, 24 June 2025
We are now being told to believe in an America that can chart its course selfishly—from Greenland to Panama to Canada to Gaza—almost entirely on the basis of a surreal mixture of Manifest Destiny, gunboat diplomacy, and golf resort and tournament planning.
—Penny Abeywardena, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2025
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
Cite this Entry
“Gunboat diplomacy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gunboat%20diplomacy. Accessed 26 Nov. 2025.
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