Once again in recent days, Europe has seemed to be watching from the sidelines as its destiny is shaped by outside forces.Would US president Donald Trump choose to restart a war with Iran and drive up the cost of oil? Would global warming drive wider and worse wildfires, even as several already raged across the Continent? Would a sudden, unexplained surge of people across the Moroccan border into a Spanish exclave – almost all of whom were immediately sent back – divide the bloc’s leaders and fuel the far right?It has already been a brutal summer for Europe: two wars, record heat, rising inflation and deep anxiety about food, energy and security. The back-to-back crises are prompting calls for joint action, urgent Zoom meetings between different groups of presidents and prime ministers, and political hand-wringing in parliaments from Poland to the United Kingdom.But like so much else that has happened in the past several years, many of Europe’s challenges are out of its control.The Iran war – a conflict that most of Europe never wanted – has disrupted life across the region, driving up the price of fuel, groceries and travel. The Continent’s leaders have pledged to help secure the passage of oil through the Strait of Hormuz once the fighting ends. And yet, they seem destined to hear about the next stage of the war from Trump’s social media feed.Europe has been unable to resolve the war in Ukraine after more than four years of bloodshed. Its achievements in cutting emissions to combat climate change are overshadowed by the actions of the United States and China. The future of artificial intelligence is being shaped largely elsewhere. Right-wing populism has risen, fuelled by migration, inequality and misinformation.“No matter how you look at it, measure it, this is a difficult, unsettling time for Europe,” said Richard Haass, who served for two decades as the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. He said Europe is partly a victim of circumstance, but also is responsible for its lack of authority over its own fate.People take shelter in a metro station in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, during Russian air strikes. Photograph: Jędrzej Nowicki/The New York Times