Pursuit encourages further retreat, and so a vicious spiral is established which can destabilize a relationship.

So development of new weapons would be frozen, ending the vicious spiral of nuclear move and countermove.

The process goes into a vicious spiral, on a timescale of hundreds of thousands of years.

"If we continue the current policies there is a risk of heading into a vicious downward spiral," he said.

In a vicious spiral of sectarian violence, civilians were an easy target.

Public spending on retirees will have to grow by a third, sending Europe into a vicious spiral of higher taxes and less growth.

But then, of course, the farmers find themselves in a vicious spiral.

Neither do I need to dwell upon what these events will do to the already vicious spiral of inflation.

And since then, she has seen the "vicious spiral of silence" do its dirty work at countless companies.

Worse, these two cascades of change (in bugs and in us) interact in a vicious spiral.