The phrase "a disproportionate response" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a reaction or action that is excessively severe or extreme compared to the situation that provoked it.
Example: "The military's airstrike was seen as a disproportionate response to the minor skirmish at the border."
Alternatives: "an excessive reaction" or "an overblown response".
The court has consistently held that imprisonment is a disproportionate response to defamation.
The shelling drew angry criticism from Iraqi leaders, who condemned it as a disproportionate response.
In other words, any strike against will lead to a disproportionate response, thereby creating a deterrent.
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany has warned against a "disproportionate response" by the United States, echoing remarks by the French defense minister, Alain Richard.
Making investors' votes on executive remuneration legally binding would be a "disproportionate" response that would have "many negative unintended consequences," the report claimed.
But the more Israel escalates its reprisals in Gaza, the more criticism it comes under internationally for what some call a disproportionate response.
Alcohol can usually be pointed to as a key factor whenever a client has a psychotically disproportionate response to something during their Caribbean destination wedding weekend.
The Israeli assault on Gaza creates such a possibility because it is a vastly disproportionate response to the provocation, and the Palestinian population is suffering from those military attacks in numbers far exceeding Israeli losses in life and property.
Eden was scandalised and, riding a wave of popular indignation, prepared a grotesquely disproportionate response: full scale invasion.
"This was not only incredibly difficult for me personally but was a completely disproportionate response by the police and the CPS, and a sinister attempt to chill public interest journalism".
They do, however, "increase the possibility of an outbreak or escalation of conflict," because they are a vastly disproportionate response to the provocation, and because the Palestinian population is suffering from those military attacks in numbers far exceeding Israeli losses in life and property.
