The phrase "a recent escalation" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to a recent increase in intensity or severity of a situation, often in contexts like conflict, tension, or issues.
Example: "The region has seen a recent escalation in violence, prompting international concern."
Alternatives: "a recent increase" or "a recent rise".
Sources point to a recent escalation in both intent and capability among dissident groups.
It is a symptom of a recent escalation of ideological struggles between China's West-leaning liberals and conservative hardliners.
A recent escalation in official efforts to stem the influence of Western political thinking on Chinese campuses should only fire ambitions to leave.
Rebels claim that a recent escalation of NATO airstrikes is emboldening uprisings in smaller cities ringing Tripoli, and even in the capital.
This encampment in Caluco, a small town 40 miles west of the capital, San Salvador, is home to about 70 people from a nearby farming community, forced to flee their homes after a recent escalation of gang violence.
On Monday it was announced that, following a recent escalation in violence across the city, the army will soon be present in the Complexo da Maré for an "indefinite" period.
— Secretary of State John Kerry, warning North Korea about its promise to test-launch a missile, and its recent escalation of tensions in the region.
Monroe is also an active campaginer on the issue of food poverty and last week at the House of Commons handed in a petition questioning the recent escalation of the use of British food banks and calling for an emergency debate on the extent of hunger in the UK.
She said the event in part came as a response to the recent escalation in North Korea's nuclear capability.
Big Wave (2016) appears to be a clear allusion to the recent escalation of global warming and to a surge in nationalist sentiment.
Experts at an emergency meeting on the recent escalation of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have stopped short of declaring a global health crisis, but expressed grave concern over the regional threat posed by the rising number of cases.
