1) Cold war to hot war 2) Increase 3) Rapid rise in prices or wages 4) Step-up 1) Enlargement 2) Hike 3) Increase 4) Strengthening 
Escalation is the process of increasing or rising, derived from the concept of an escalator. Specific uses of the term include: ==Media== ...
1. Regarding the structure of tariffs, see tariff escalation. 2. In the context of a trade war, escalation refers to the increase in tariffs that occurs as countries retaliate again and again.
(from the article `war`) ...similar. If individual states in competitive situations are governed by a short-term conception of their interests, acute conflicts between them ...
When a pension in payment is automatically increased at regular intervals by a fixed percentage rate or the increase of a specific index such as the Retail Price Index (RPI).
[n] - an increase to counteract a perceived discrepancy
noun an increase to counteract a perceived discrepancy; `higher wages caused an escalation of prices`; `there was a gradual escalation of hostilities`
(ITIL Service Operation) An activity that obtains additional resources when these are needed to meet service level targets or customer expectations. Escalation may be needed within any IT service management process, but is most commonly associated with incident management, problem management and the management of customer complaints. There are two ...
an increase to counteract a perceived discrepancy