The americans invaded Afghanistan to maintain their world police status. They're basically never leaving. The guy who funded the afghan mujahedeen writes this clearly in his book "the grand chessboard".

You have the chinese investing in one belt, one road(silkroad). While the americans come to countries and destroy them. The Americans are just exporting destruction and instability, so the chinese will not invest in war torn countries and not be able to expand their influence.

You need stability to make sure you get returns on your investment. Also, the americans are still the dominant military and they're not going to wait for Russia or China to become equal or greater in terms of power. They want to start wars right now, because it is an advantage for them.

You can already see them clashing with Russia in Ukraine and Syria. This is good for everyone else, because a real war with europe vs russia would throw off the US and the europeans. A war between them should be encouraged, it benefits the rest of the world very much.

Europeans are not united. They have the illusion of unity, theres no commonality between them.