Cable distinguishes limited coercion from war fighting. A naval demonstration can support a diplomatic dispute or protect nationals, but the moment it produces the war it was meant to avoid, it has failed on Cable's terms. Cable also excludes ordinary wartime action, preserving the concept for limited pressure rather than relabelling every naval operation as diplomacy. That distinction becomes the test applied to the Victorian cases that follow.
Chapter · 19:39-20:45
What gunboat diplomacy means
James Cable's definition frames gunboat diplomacy as limited naval force used to gain an advantage or avert a loss without treating war as the intended outcome.