Examples of gunboat diplomacy in a Sentence
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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.
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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
Through gunboat diplomacy, France forced Haiti to agree to an enormous indemnity in exchange for recognition.
—Patrick Iber, The New Republic, 11 Jan. 2022
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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
Through gunboat diplomacy, France forced Haiti to agree to an enormous indemnity in exchange for recognition.
—Patrick Iber, The New Republic, 11 Jan. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Gunboat diplomacy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gunboat%20diplomacy. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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