From Potsdam to Helsinki to Ukraine: Europe's Hard Choice Between Collective and Selective Security, in L'Europe unie 24/2026

From Potsdam to Helsinki to Ukraine: Europe's Hard Choice Between Collective and Selective Security Silvie Drahosova[1] Central European University fellow, Vienna [1] Silvie Drahošová is a Vienna-based, Central European University fellow (CEU, Culture, Politics, and Society), currently on an exchange year at London School of Economics, with experience in research, strategy, communications, and project coordination across international organizations. She is a Project Officer at the Global Advisory for Future Governance (GAFG), where she supports research activities, conference development, and stakeholder engagement. Silvie Drahosova ORCID: 0009-0001-5043-5817 website: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5043-5817 ; WoS: QMR-1599-2026 ; website: https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/QMR-1599-2026SSRN: 12093068 website: https://papers.ssrn.com/Sol3/Cf_Dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=12093068 ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Silvie-Drahosova?ev=hdr_xprf Abstract This article examines the evolution of the European security order from Potsdam (1945) and the Helsinki Process to the war in Ukraine, using the 2025 OSCE Ministerial Council as a contemporary reference point. It argues that Europe's current security crisis reflects the cumulative erosion of cooperative security rather than a single geopolitical rupture. By distinguishing between collective, alliance, cooperative, and selective security, the study offers an original analytical framework for understanding the structural transformation of the European security architecture and the changing role of the OSCE. Scientific contribution The article develops a novel conceptual framework linking Potsdam, Helsinki, NATO enlargement, Kosovo, and Ukraine into a single historical interpretation of Europe's evolving security order. It introduces selective security as an analytical concept explaining the gradual weakening of cooperative security and the contemporary crisis of the European security architecture. Keywords European security; OSCE; Helsinki Final Act; cooperative security; selective security; collective security; NATO; Ukraine; Potsdam Conference; European security architecture; international relations; geopolitics.