Analysis: Why Russia-Turkey Spat Won't Start World War III

When Turkey shot a Russian warplane out of the sky on Tuesday for allegedly violating its airspace, the reaction was swift.

Russia's government called it a "criminal" act and vowed retaliation, while NATO quickly backed alliance-member Turkey's version of events.

The incident set off frantic fearmongering about a new Cold War and saw "WWIII" rise as a Twitter trend, but appears to have been downgraded to a diplomatic ding, NBC News reported.

That may have been partly because NATO's treaty states that an attack on one member state constitutes an attack on all. That principle of collective defense is enshrined in Article 5 of the alliance's treaty — and was invoked for the first time in wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S.

But analysts say this week's incident involving the Russian Su-24 jet just doesn't measure up.

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