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Adam Thomson

Director

Sir Adam Thomson KCMG has been the Director of the European Leadership Network since November 2016.

Before joining the ELN Sir Adam had a 38 year diplomatic career in the British Diplomatic Service, preceded by short spells at the World Bank and at Harvard. His final diplomatic posting was as the UK Permanent Representative to NATO between 2014 and 2016. Prior to that, from 2010 Sir Adam served as British High Commissioner to Pakistan and between 2002 and 2006 he was British Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

Earlier postings included Moscow, NATO, Washington DC and New Delhi. Sir Adam has also worked in London on Israel/Lebanon, in the Cabinet Office as the Soviet analyst for the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee (1989 – 91), as the Head of the FCO’s Security Policy Department and as FCO Director for South Asia and Afghanistan.

Follow Sir Adam on Twitter @SirAdamELN.

Sir Adam does not have any personal website or blog, nor has he ever had a personal website or blog while at the ELN.

Content by Adam Thomson

Commentary

Ok, Doomer! The NEVER Podcast – The End of the World for Beginners

Listen to the first episode of the NEVER podcast – Ok, Doomer! In this episode, we explore the basics of man-made existential risk, featuring an introduction to the topic, its relationship to great power competition, how governments have dealt with potential existential risks such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, and how they should respond to them in future.

Commentary

Getting traction on great power risks – Sir Adam Thomson’s EA Global conference speech

The ELN’s Director, Sir Adam Thomson, spoke at this year’s Effective Altruism conference on the nature of the catastrophic and existential risks we face, including nuclear risks. He discusses how they are meaningfully different from those of 60 years ago, and how we should reassess how we tackle the single greatest driver of them, great power competition.

16 June 2023 | Adam Thomson