escalation

/EH0 S K AH0 L EY1 SH AH0 N/
noun
  1. 1

    An increase or rise, especially one to counteract a perceived discrepancy

  2. 2

    A deliberate or premeditated increase in the violence or geographic scope of a conflict

  3. 3

    (customer support) The reassignment of a difficult customer problem to someone whose job is dedicated to handling such cases.

Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/escalation