General Studies Mains Test Series (International Relations)

Gun Boat Diplomay

In international politics, gunboat diplomacy (may be referred to as “big stick diplomacy” in U.S history) refers to the pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of naval power — implying or constituting a direct threat of warfare, should terms not be agreeable to the superior force

The term comes from the nineteenth-century period of imperialism, where European powers would intimidate other less powerful states into granting concessions through a demonstration of their superior naval power.

In modern context

Gunboat diplomacy is considered a form of hegemony.As the United States became a military power in the first decade of the 20th century, the Rooseveltian version of gunboat diplomacy, big stick diplomacy, was partially superseded by dollar diplomacy: replacing the big stick with the “juicy carrot” of American private investment. However, during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, conventional gunboat diplomacy did occur, most notably in the case of the U.S. Army’s occupation of Veracruz in 1914, during the Mexican Revolution.

Gunboat diplomacy in the post-Cold War world is still based mostly on naval forces, owing to the United States Navy’s overwhelming sea power. U.S. administrations have frequently changed the disposition of their major naval fleets to influence opinion in foreign capitals. More urgent diplomatic points were made by the Clinton administration in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s (in alliance with the United Kingdom’s Blair government) and elsewhere, using sea-launched Tomahawk missiles, and E-3 AWACS airborne surveillance aircraft in a more passive display of military presence.