EUPeace Crisis Conversations - The OSCE at a crossroads? On the past and future of the world’s largest regional security organisation

About the event

The second EUPeace Crisis Conversations session in 2026 focuses on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) at a moment of profound uncertainty.

Fifty years after the signing of the Helsinki Final Act, the OSCE is struggling to assert its role in a rapidly changing European and global security environment. Defied by Russia, bypassed by the United States, and operating alongside powerful actors such as the EU and NATO, the word’s largest regioal security organization faces questions about its relevance, effectiveness, and future direction.

This session will contextualize the OSCE’s current crisis historically and link it to broader developments in international politics, including the return of great-power geopolitics and the erosion of multilateralism in Europe and beyond. It will also explore whether the challenges facing the OSCE point to a deeper crisis of the human security paradigm that emerged from the Helsinki Final Act of 1975.

The event is part of the EUPeace Crisis Conversations, a series dedicated to examining contemporary global crises and their implications for peace, security, and international cooperation.