Large cruisers as carrier substitutes in naval diplomacy

Do large cruisers make sense as diplomatic signaling tools in a multipolar world?

Yes, especially for powers without carriers, because a large combatant supplies a visible level of presence and escalation.

A large cruiser cannot reproduce carrier aviation, but it can represent national reach and provide a visible escalation option. A Chinese Kirov-scale nuclear battlecruiser would alarm Washington precisely because the United States no longer has Iowa-class battleships available as a direct symbolic answer. The value is political as well as tactical. The exchange demonstrates how fleet composition influences the vocabulary of peacetime coercion.