How to Use unilateralism in a Sentence

unilateralism

noun
  • Self-serving unilateralism will be challenging to sell to allies and is predictably starting to backfire.
    — Ben Harburg, Fortune, 18 Sep. 2023
  • Her supporters would laud the court for having restrained a woman who, with blithe unilateralism, had attempted to put an ocean between a small boy and one of his mothers.
    — Ian Parker, The New Yorker, 22 May 2017
  • Only new legislation can cure presidential unilateralism and that is not in the offing.
    — WSJ, 11 Nov. 2021
  • Trump’s own judicial appointees, many of whom have been old-school conservatives, have been willing to say no to him, and many of them have a doctrinal aversion to presidential unilateralism.
    — Ramesh Ponnuru, Washington Post, 18 July 2024
  • Congress has proved incapable or unwilling to check this presidential unilateralism.
    — Robert Haswell, The Conversation, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Unpredictability and unilateralism are not desirable traits for a superpower with the second-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.
    — Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 11 Jan. 2026
  • Meaningful action to protect human rights is rare, and the collectivist approach, which disdains unilateralism, keeps forceful sovereign responses at bay.
    — Aaron Rhodes, WSJ, 18 Oct. 2020
  • Based on the band’s ensuing legal battles, unilateralism generally doesn’t promote unit cohesion.
    — Tom Maxwell, Longreads, 10 Apr. 2020
  • This trade agenda—call it pragmatic unilateralism—combines the assertiveness of Trump with the industrial policy of Biden.
    — Gordon H. Hanson, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2023
  • And working with allies and partners fit with the Biden administration’s overall preference for diplomacy over unilateralism.
    — Nikita Lalwani, Foreign Affairs, 15 Apr. 2025
  • Israeli unilateralism must also be resisted.
    — Richard Haass, Foreign Affairs, 3 Sep. 2025
  • For all its country-specific fervor, the Olympics is a proudly multilateral event taking place this year in a world that, from Brexit to Trump policies, is awash in a burst of unilateralism.
    — USA TODAY, 7 Feb. 2018
  • Protectionism, unilateralism, and skepticism of democracy promotion and foreign aid now command support across both parties and among a generation of voters.
    — Ian Bremmer, Time, 25 June 2026
  • An advanced health security strategy that uses unilateralism to its advantage and streamlines response efforts puts America first.
    — Andrew Kishuni, Orlando Sentinel, 31 Jan. 2025
  • Allies are discovering what unvarnished unilateralism feels like, as security guarantees become protection rackets and trade deals are enforced with tariffs.
    — Michael Beckley, Foreign Affairs, 21 Oct. 2025
  • Although some Americans favor greater unilateralism and isolationism, there is in fact broad support for the pillars of the Biden administration’s strategy.
    — Antony J. Blinken, Foreign Affairs, 1 Oct. 2024
  • European politicians said Trump’s unilateralism over Greenland, and his treatment of long-standing allies, was playing into Moscow and Beijing’s hands.
    — Tim Lister, CNN Money, 18 Jan. 2026
  • Instead of making Iran look like a diplomacy-loving victim of American unilateralism, Tehran would have to defend its odious Syria policy.
    — Mark Dubowitz and Richard Goldberg, WSJ, 18 Apr. 2018
  • Some Europeans see it differently – as a loss of solidarity and common purpose - and a striking example of US unilateralism.
    — Tim Lister, CNN Money, 3 May 2026
  • Trump’s approach to the rest of the world was a strange form of assertive unilateralism, an approach that explicitly disavowed the concept of global leadership while flexing American power, especially military might.
    — Blaise Malley, The New Republic, 5 Oct. 2023
  • Trump’s tendency toward America First unilateralism was bracing to a man schooled in multilateral Cold War alliance-making.
    — Jeremy Carl, Washington Examiner, 11 Feb. 2021
  • This slide into unilateralism and protectionism is endangering the global economy and undermining the WTO’s ability to enforce a common set of rules.
    — Susana Malcorra, Time, 28 June 2019
  • Multilateralism is far preferable to unilateralism, but narrow multilateralism is far more promising than universal or broad forms of collective action that rarely succeed; witness, for example, the course of climate-change diplomacy and trade.
    — Richard Haass, Foreign Affairs, 6 Sep. 2022
  • As during the nuclear era, the United States needs to turn away from unilateralism, toward détente and arms control, and, perhaps in the very long term, toward rebuilding an interdependent global economy on more robust foundations.
    — Henry Farrell, Foreign Affairs, 19 Aug. 2025
  • French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to be a key voice joining secretary-general Guterres in speaking out against unilateralism and populism, and supporting multilateralism as key to promoting peace.
    — Fox News, 25 Sep. 2018
  • Another form of unilateralism to be avoided is the declaration from concerned outsiders—namely Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom—of their intention to recognize a Palestinian state this fall if there is no cease-fire in Gaza.
    — Richard Haass, Foreign Affairs, 3 Sep. 2025
  • In 2021, senators Mike Lee, Bernie Sanders and Chris Murphy collectively got together and tried to create a national security document that would restrain presidential unilateralism.
    — Sarah Burns, The Conversation, 3 Jan. 2026
  • Despite this being a time of American unilateralism, Washington demonstrated its willingness to engage constructively by sending its Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, to the Cameroon conference with a clear agenda to negotiate an extension of a pause on tariffs for digital products.
    — Inu Manak, Time, 27 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unilateralism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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