Adam is a scholar-practitioner whose career has moved between the highest levels of academia and public service. He was appointed Visiting Fellow in Public Policy at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs in 2026, formalising a relationship with Loughborough University London that stretches back to 2017. He has taught on the Politics and Practice of the EU and currently delivers Negotiation: Strategy, Skills and Leadership at the London campus, where his negotiation simulation exercises have become a valued feature of the student experience.
Adam is also a Visiting Professor at Haute École ICHEC Brussels Management School, where he teaches on EU institutions, international management and negotiation, and Associate Researcher at the Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration at Université Laval, Canada. He is also a regular commentator for CBC Radio-Canada.
From 2001 to 2012, Adam was Head of the School of European Studies at the UK National School of Government in the Cabinet Office, where he led the team responsible for EU training and consultancy across the UK civil service. Building on that experience, he has designed and delivered negotiation and EU-focused training in almost thirty countries for governments, regulators and international institutions, including the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Canadian Foreign Service Institute, the German Bundesakademie für öffentliche Verwaltung and the Vienna School of International Studies.
Adam holds an AB cum laude in Social Studies from Harvard University and a DPhil in Politics from Wadham College, Oxford, and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Before joining the civil service, he lectured in European politics and government at Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Economics, where he was also a Visiting Research Fellow in EU Politics.
Adam's research and publications span Brexit and UK-EU relations, transatlantic relations, EU negotiations and lobbying, civil service reform and training, and French politics and labour history.
His book Workers' Participation in Post-Liberation France (Lexington Books, 2001) is a cited text in French labour history.
Recent work includes a chapter on UK relations with the United States and the European Union since Brexit in L'Union européenne, puissance globale dans les relations internationales et transatlantiques (Éditions Larcier/Bruylant, 2023).
He has also given evidence to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs and Public Administration Select Committees.
At Loughborough University London, Adam contributed to the ESRC-funded EU28+ project on EU member states and Brexit (2017-2019).
Adam's work at IDIA centres on experiential learning in negotiation and public policy.
He is developing negotiation and policy simulation exercises for the Institute's programmes, including the MSc Public Policy launching in September 2026, alongside guest seminars for postgraduate and doctoral students and contributions to IDIA's public events programme.
He has delivered talks and briefings to senior policymakers, politicians and academics around the world, from Ottawa and Quebec City to Vienna, Berlin, Tokyo and Hong Kong.