Abstract: How did contemporary wars become so lethal? By what process did the physical annihilation of the enemy come to be the central objective of many of these conflicts? How can we account for the fact that the homicidal dimension of conflicst often took priority over their political dimension? In this analysis, we show that the lethality of contemporary war can be partly understood through the introduction of automatic firing techniques, and therewith also the capacity to fire in rapid bursts.
