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Creative Retirement Institute

CRI Report

The CRI Report, a regular feature of the Edmonds Beacon and Enterprise newspapers, investigates topics of special interest to older adults. Author of the articles is John Nadeau, a CRI advisory board member. Here is a sampling of articles that have appeared in recent months.

Foreign Affairs at Night

Check out this job description:

You’ll travel to great destinations – okay, maybe some not-so-great.

You’ll meet government leaders, important businessmen, and other VIPs.

You’ll earn a respectable salary, have an attractive benefits package, and enjoy good housing that’s arranged for you.

On the other hand, you’ll go where the government tells you to go, see whom the government tells you to see, and do what the government tells you to do.

As a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, you’ll be a representative of the American government and its policies.

Such a career diplomat was Edmonds resident Jim Thyden, now retired, who will teach a course at the Creative Retirement Institute (CRI) next month.

Foreign Policy in the Obama Administration will meet two Tuesday evenings, Nov. 10 and 17, from 7 to 9 p.m.

“We’ll discuss the basics of foreign policy decision making and diplomacy,” Thyden says, “then examine Obama’s early moves to address the problems of an extremely broad agenda.”

“Jim represents the outstanding faculty we have been able to attract from the non-academic world,” says Jerry Freeland, also of Edmonds, who chairs CRI’s board.

“He has a wealth of background and excellent credentials to teach such a course,” she adds, pointing out that his previous CRI classes have been “well attended.”

As a career diplomat, Jim Thyden has lived in Norway, Germany, and Iceland.

His assignments with the State Department have included work on human rights, intelligence analysis, trade policy, and crisis management.

Besides CRI, he’s taught at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute and the University of Washington.

“While the CRI course will focus on the international crises that demand Obama’s immediate action,” Thyden says, “we’ll also consider issues relating to rising nations like China and India.”

You may have noticed that this course will meet in the evening, a departure for CRI.

“This is an experiment,” says Jerry Freeland. “We want to reach out to people who are unable to attend classes during the day.”

That means appealing to individuals who aren’t retired or who are working past the normal retirement age.

“If these people are close to retiring, we want to show them they have something great to look forward to,” Freeland adds.

You can find out more about Jim Thyden’s foreign policy course and other CRI offerings by phoning 425-640-1830 or access the web site .

The Creative Retirement Institute at Edmonds Community College offers non-credit, college-level courses to all adults over age 50, regardless of educational background.