Adam is a globally recognized negotiator with a unique combination of academic credentials, elite negotiation skills, and field experience gained from some of the world’s most challenging life-and-death negotiations.
After a successful academic career at universities in the United States, Singapore, and Australia—where he became known primarily as an expert on terrorist negotiations—Adam transitioned into operational practice and dedicated the following decade to negotiating for the lives of hostages held by terrorist organizations, criminal groups, pirate gangs, and state actors around the world.
Today, he works as an instructor in negotiation and advanced communication skills, while also advising on complex and high-pressure negotiations, often in countries and environments where Western standards and business norms cannot be taken for granted.
Among his previous roles, Adam served as the lead expert on kidnapping negotiations at the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) in New York and is the only civilian member of the International Negotiation Working Group (INWG), which brings together representatives of national negotiation teams from around the world. As an instructor, he regularly delivers training for negotiation, counterterrorism, intelligence, and diplomatic professionals worldwide, having taught in more than 65 countries to date. His clients have included the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit, the United States Army Special Operations Command, the New York City Police Department (NYPD), and the national and police negotiation teams of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Norway, Chile, Belgium, South Korea, Colombia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Turkey, and many others.
Among the specialized training programs Adam has completed are the FBI National Negotiation Courses in Quantico, the Scotland Yard National Negotiation Courses in Hendon, a United Nations hostage negotiation course in Nairobi, and a police training program in covert negotiation techniques in Manchester. Adam has also served as a professor and terrorism researcher at universities in the United States, Australia, Singapore, and Germany. He is the author of six books on terrorism and negotiation, including Understanding Terrorist Innovation: Technology, Tactics and Global Trends, Negotiating Hostage Crises with the New Terrorists, and Negotiating the Siege of Lal Masjid, and has published more than 60 academic studies and professional articles. Countries he has visited professionally during his career include Chechnya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Uganda, Sudan, the southern Philippines, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Colombia, Myanmar, Cameroon, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Tunisia, Mozambique, Algeria, Peru, Mauritania, India, China, and South Africa, among others.
Martin Moravec’s book Adam Dolník: The World of an Elite Negotiator became the best-selling book-length interview in the Czech Republic in 2024.
