An increase to counteract a perceived discrepancy

Usage examples of escalation.

United States and the Soviet Union during the latter half of the Cold War, when both superpowers recognized that there was no possible gain from aggression that was worth the risk of an escalation to nuclear warfare and so generally refrained from any provocative moves toward each other.

Pakistan has waged an insurgent war against India in Kashmir, believing that India would not be able to respond effectively for fear of escalation to nuclear war.

A number of these assessments base their conclusions on the experience between the United States and the Soviet Union during the latter half of the Cold War, when both superpowers recognized that there was no possible gain from aggression that was worth the risk of an escalation to nuclear warfare and so generally refrained from any provocative moves toward each other.

The escalation of the computer malfunction was no longer an unsubstantiated theory, it was fact.

Supercenter expansion augurs an escalation of what already is the biggest food fight in history.

The Indo-Pakistani crises of 1990, 1999, and 2002 were all sparked by blatant Pakistani support for Kashmiri insurgents, and in every case India was restrained from responding as it would have liked by fear of escalation to nuclear war.

The airbursts, the preemptive strikes, the massive retaliations, the uncontrollable escalations: it is already happening inside our heads.

I knew, however, that after all the protests and the Moratorium, American public opinion would be seriously divided by any military escalation of the war.

United States and the Soviet Union during the latter half of the Cold War, when both superpowers recognized that there was no possible gain from aggression that was worth the risk of an escalation to nuclear warfare and so generally refrained from any provocative moves toward each other.

Specialist technical and hardline teams being readied, transport priorities re-allocated, police and security personnel preparing to perform joint civilian control duties, keeping tourists and residents out of the way in case of an escalation, emergency services being brought to full stand-by status.

In Paris, it's true, he had apolitical minded friend, quite aclose friend, a brilliant freelance writer historian, and from this man Alan Savage had learned unsettling things about, for instance, the re cent escalation of American involvement in Vietnam the number of military advisers has risen from 2,000 to 15,000 in two years!

On the debit side, Admiral Konstanzakis is correct about the potential for escalation.

President Johnson has committed to a covert escalation plan which will allow him to introduce an additional 125,000 troops by next summer.

On the first day, while strategic intentions were being tested and before the large-scale escalations, the navies of the Eastern and Western blocs destroyed each other.

And we can even find evidence of positive feedbacks, in the form of escalations (or, looking at it from the other direction, degenerations) in meaning.