The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

8 MAY 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Here’s to Life After the Foreign Service BY SHAWN DORMAN I Shawn Dorman is the editor of The Foreign Service Journal. Service retirees for short-term (up to 1,040 hours in one year) assignments—is now named the Re-Employed Annuitant (REA) program. Many retirees find great employ- ment options through this program—from working on declassification of documents or editing the annual Human Rights Report to serving as a temporary chargé or filling in on the visa line. The trick is that finding the jobs is just about completely based on your network and your relation- ship with a home bureau. In a close look at a growing trend— aging in place—journalist MarthaThomas tells us about community-based “Villages” around the United States in which volun- teers support people who want to stay in their homes as they age. These Villages can be an excellent fit for FS retirees who decide they want to “never move again.” We are excited to share Part I of “Life After the Foreign Service: What We’re Doing Now,” a compilation of responses to our request for input from former Foreign Service members. In this issue, we share 25 of the 45 essays, and will feature more in an upcoming issue. I offer sincere thanks for the generosity with whichmembers of our community have shared their stories and their advice for fellow travelers. We celebrate those who have served in the U.S. Foreign Service and who continue to serve in somany ways in retirement. We sail off to sea with Edmund Hull, pilot a begin with a spoiler alert for this special focus: There is life after the Foreign Service. This is true whether you leave before you have to or with the gentle nudge or push out the door on reaching age 65 or some earlier threshold you do not cross. The “up or out” system can be unkind (cruel?), but it can also lead to grand new opportunities whenever that “out” comes along. And, for those who stay in for 20 years, that afterlife is funded by a full pension. That is no small thing. We begin with the practical, “Retire- ment Planning 101,” written by John Naland, a recent Foreign Service retiree and former AFSA president. As a former director of the Office of Retirement, John knows what he’s talking about, and shares valuable advice on what to consider when approaching retirement. Then we move to the inspirational, hearing from recent retiree Dean Haas about his choice to leave early, while h is Foreign Service career was still going strong, to pursue other passions and dreams. FS retiree Ann Sides shares her personal journey “FromConsul General to Police Volunteer,” discovering—as many have—that consular career skills can be highly relevant for completely new lines of work. Larry Cohen , a former AFSA vice president for retirees, explains how to play the rehired annuitant game. What has long been known as WAE hiring (While Actually Employed)—a system for hiring Foreign plane with Brian Carlson and protect wild horses with Charlotte Roe. We become mayors and attorneys and disaster relief workers and consultants and volunteers and academics and writers. We hope you’ll find inspiration in these stories, as well as some practical advice on how to navigate the post-FS waters. Elsewhere in the issue, retired FSO Ray- mond Smith (another sailor) speaks out on U.S. policy toward Syria and the so-called Islamic State group. In “Hippocrates and Hobbes, Assad and ISIS,” he argues that for other than life-and-deathmatters, the Hippocratic oathmight be a better guide to foreign policy than the urge to do good. And, in another take on the problems of foreign assistance, retired USAID FSO Barry Hill shows the benefits of involving agribusiness and trade associations in agri- cultural development work in Africa. In an extended Reflection, retired FSO Jeffrey Glassman takes us to a forgot- ten cemetery in Vienna. We’ve loosened the word-count limit on Reflections to allow for longer essays and the inclusion of photos, and we’re looking for more of them. Please send your 650- to 1,200-word Reflection to journal@afsa.org. Next month, we take a dive into cor- ruption as a foreign policy issue and open a window on the subject of support for FS kids with special needs. As always, we welcome your feedback. n We hope you’ll find inspiration in these stories, as well as some practical advice on how to navigate the post-FS waters.