Men Lie, Strategies Lie—Numbers Don’t

The Word Counts of the New National Defense Strategy
Article/Op-Ed in Defense One
Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
Feb. 13, 2026

New America Strategist Peter W. Singer examines what word counts can reveal about the new National Defense Strategy in Defense One:

Measuring the frequency of words and themes in a document can offer insights, reveal underlying messages, and even illuminate what’s on the minds of its writers. The 2026 National Defense Strategy is meant to help align ends, ways, and means, and to signal goals and values. But to find the truth, sometimes you just have to count. 

Read the full article here.