  in international politics, gunboat diplomacy (or "big stick diplomacy" in u.s. history) refers to the pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of naval powerâimplying or constituting a direct threat of warfare, should terms not be agreeable to the superior force. == origin of the term == the term comes from the nineteenth-century period of imperialism, when european powers would intimidate other, less powerful states into granting concessions through a demonstration of their superior naval power . a country negotiating with a european power would notice that a warship or fleet of ships had appeared off its coast. the mere sight of such power almost always had a considerable effect, and it was rarely necessary for such boats to use other measures, such as demonstrations of cannon fire. a notable and controversial example of gunboat diplomacy was the don pacifico incident in 1850, in which the british foreign secretary lord palmerston dispatched a squadron of the royal navy to blockade the greek port of piraeus in retaliation for the harming of a british subject, david pacifico, in athens, and the subsequent failure of the government of king otto to compensate the gibraltar-born (and therefore british) pacifico. the effectiveness of such simple demonstrations of a nation's projection of force capabilities meant that those nations with naval power, especially britain, could establish military bases (for example, diego garcia) and arrange economically advantageous relationships around the world. aside from military conquest, gunboat diplomacy was the dominant way to establish new trade partners, colonial outposts, and expansion of empire. those lacking the resources and technological advancements of european empires found that their own peaceable relationships were readily dismantled in the face of such pressures, and they therefore came to depend on the imperialist nations for access to raw materials and overseas markets. the british diplomat and naval thinker james cable spelled out the nature of gunboat diplomacy in a series of works published between 1971 and 1994. in these, he defined the phenomenon as "the use or threat of limited naval force, otherwise than as an act of war, in order to secure advantage or to avert loss, either in the furtherance of an international dispute or else against foreign nationals within the territory or the jurisdiction of their own state."j. cable, gunboat diplomacy, 1919-1991: political applications of limited 
Banana_Wars Military_diplomacy Types_of_diplomacy