A bystander on the road to disaster: The Old Continent is losing control of its destiny

It seems that Europe finds itself once again in the position of a bystander, while its fate is determined by external forces. The continent is experiencing an especially cruel summer, dealing simultaneously with two wars, unprecedented heatwaves, inflation, and growing anxiety over security and energy. However, as emerges from an analysis published in the "New York Times," it seems that many of these challenges are beyond the control of the European leadership.

The war of the United States and Israel against Iran, a conflict that most European countries never wanted, is disrupting life in the region and causing energy prices to soar. Europe's public opposition to the decision of US President Donald Trump to go to war has soured transatlantic relations. Although Britain and France announced their intention to secure the Strait of Hormuz, they are forced to wait for a prolonged ceasefire, while Trump threatens to escalate the strikes. Europeans, it seems, are doomed to be updated on developments through the American president's social media.

On another front, Europe is struggling to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, which has already entered its fifth year. Countries like Britain, France, and Germany established a "coalition of the willing" in an attempt to prevent Trump and Vladimir Putin from striking a peace deal at the expense of Kyiv, but Trump continues to push his allies to the margins in favor of direct contacts that have so far borne no fruit.

Parallel to the geopolitical crises, the continent is literally burning. European countries are experiencing the consequences of global warming firsthand, with massive fires that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in France and Spain, and firefighters who lost their lives in Greece. Into this chaos was recently added a sudden wave of migration to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa. This crisis ignited sharp internal tension within the European Union and provided further fuel for far-right parties across the continent.

Ukrainian attack in Russia (Photo: Reuters)

Richard Haass, who served as president of the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States, noted in an interview with the "New York Times" that Europe is partially responsible for its situation, as it invested too little in its security and became a bystander even in areas like artificial intelligence technology. Given the lack of unity and the absence of the ability to project authority on the global stage, Haass summarized Europe's situation in one resounding sentence:

"The whole is much less than the sum of its parts."