World War III

World War III, commonly abbreviated WWIII or WW3, was a globe-spanning military conflict between the Allies (United States, NATO, China, Brazil) and the Tehran Pact forces (New Soviet Republic [NSR], Iran, North Korea) that lasted two years, from the NSR's sneak air attack on Ukraine and Kazakhstan on July 12, 2007 to the signing of the Warsaw Treaty by the newly reestablished Russian Federation, Iran, and North Korea on August 20, 2009. The war had been expected throughout the Cold War but had never come, and with the 21st century, many believed the threat of another world war, let alone nuclear war was absurd. The NSR's creation through a coup against President Putin in the summer of 2007, led by Defense Minister Nicholas Gorbaunov, changed global perspectives on war, and with the NSR sneak attacks on Ukraine and Kazakhstan on July 12 led to a NATO declaration of war on the NSR after Ukraine requested NATO intervention on their behalf. Lasting just over two years, the war inflicted 11,735,340 military casualties alone on both sides, and nearly 4,000,000 civilian casualties through a brief nuclear exchange between the NSR and France, and the destruction of Astana, Kazakhstan by al-Qaeda through use of a series of NSR-supplied tactical nuclear weapons.