The Friday Formation

09 January 2026

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning from every front
09 January 2026

---

🗓️ Editor’s Note

The new year is less about reinvention and more about alignment.

As routines restart and inboxes refill, this week’s readings focus on doing the work that actually compounds over time. Broadening with intention. Building a body of work. Learning early, failing early, and staying humble enough to keep growing. These are the quiet habits that separate motion from progress.

Consider this your opening formation of 2026. Set your direction. Choose what you will invest in. And remember that the profession improves when we think out loud, together.

If I missed something worth reading, send it my way. Dialogue is how the year really begins.

Chris

---

---

⚔️ Warfighting

• Broadening With Purpose: Making the Most of the Army’s Broadening Opportunity Program – Lyndi Dix (From the Green Notebook)

A practical guide to using broadening assignments deliberately rather than passively.

• Overcoming the Principal-Agent Problem in Running Venezuela – Patrick Sullivan (MWI)

A case study in governance, control, and strategic friction.

• It’s Not About Drugs or Even Venezuela – Ibrahima Diallo (MWI)

Explores signaling and strategic competition beyond surface-level narratives.

• Sustaining at the Edge: Army Reserve Integration in the Indo-Pacific – Joshua Koncar (MWI)

Highlights how Reserve Component integration matters in contested theaters.

• Security Force Assistance in Africa’s Drone Age – Daryl Scarborough (MWI)

Examines how low-cost drones are reshaping security cooperation and advisory missions.

• Angle of Attack: Apache Helicopters in Unmanned Skies – Hannah Lamb (IWI)

Considers how manned aviation adapts in increasingly autonomous battlespaces.

• Choke Points: Critical Minerals and Irregular Warfare in the Gray Zone – Dino Garner (IWI)

A look at resource competition as a form of irregular conflict.

• The Invisible Frontline – Hamzeh Abu Nowar (Small Wars Journal)

Explores conflict spaces that sit below the traditional threshold of war.

---

🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

• We Grow Strategists Too Late – Matthew Revels (MWI)

Argues for earlier exposure to failure and strategic thinking in leader development.

• CFIUS: Thinking Creatively About National Security – Eric Lebson (IWI)

A primer on economic security and interagency defense mechanisms.

• If China Attacks Taiwan: Consequences for China – Greitens et al. (SSI)

A comprehensive assessment of escalation risks and strategic costs.

• How Maduro’s Capture Went Down – Dr. R. Evan Ellis (SSI)

Breaks down operational planning and political context behind a major security event.

• Tyranny of the Inbox – Neil N. Snyder (SSI)

A timely warning about agenda overload in national security leadership.

• A New Way of Warfare Requires More Than New Tech – GEN (Ret.) Nick Carter (War on the Rocks)

Emphasizes culture and leadership alongside modernization.

• Containing the Threat of Containerized Missiles – Zane Tremmel (War on the Rocks)

Examines a growing challenge in missile proliferation and concealment.

---

🔄 Continuous Transformation

• A Body of Work – Joe Byerly (From the Green Notebook)

A reflection on consistency, contribution, and professional legacy.

• What Books Taught Me About Life in 2025 – Joe Byerly (FTGN)

Lessons drawn from reading as a lifelong leadership habit.

• Be Humble – Chaveso “Chevy” Cook and Chris Slininger (3×5 Leadership)

A reminder that humility is a skill, not a personality trait.

• Experience-Based Development – Josh Bowen (3×5 Leadership)

Why growth requires intentional exposure, not just time served.

• Assessing Cognitive Warfare – Frank Hoffman (IWI)

Frames cognition as a contested domain in modern conflict.

• The Cyber Wars That Weren’t – Derek Ray (Small Wars Journal)

Challenges assumptions about cyber conflict narratives.

• Three Wicked Problems in the Antarctic – Walsh and Remont (SWJ)

Explores governance, competition, and presence at the planet’s edge.

• Non-Ephemeral Integration – Catherine Marie Abbott (SWJ)

Looks at sustainable integration across military and civilian systems.

---

📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

• Five Questions for a General: GEN Joe Votel – Host: Cadet Zach Olson (MWI Podcast)

Reflections on leadership, partnership, and strategic judgment.

• How Canceling PT Made Me the Officer I Am Today – Erik Davis (Center for Junior Officers)

A candid reflection on trust, judgment, and leadership discretion.

• Drew Sinclair on Leadership and Service – Mops & Moes Podcast

A conversation on leadership identity and perspective beyond uniform.

---

📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal - Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

Short Read: Be Humble

Deep Dive: If China Attacks Taiwan: Consequences for China

Listen: Five Questions for a General: GEN Joe Votel

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.