It's Tuesday, September the 21st, and welcome back to Goodfellows, a Hoover Institution broadcast exploring

social, economic, political, and geopolitical concerns.

I'm Bill Whelan.

I'm a distinguished policy fellow here at the Hoover Institution.

I'm back in the moderator's chair this week.

That means I get to introduce the stars of our show, three gentlemen, we jokingly refer to as the Goodfellows.

That would be Neil Ferguson, H.R. McMaster, and John Cochran, Hoover Institution, senior fellows all.

Gentlemen, good to have you back. Neil, thank you very much for doing the drudgery of moderating last week.

I got a lot of emails suggesting why not more, Neil.

Maybe more HR, maybe more John in the moderator's chair, too.

What do you think, guys?

I think you do too good a job, Bill.

So I'd like to keep you in the seat.

You, sir, a gentleman and a diplomat.

So last week, we stayed in America's shores.

We delved into California.

Let us go overseas this week and talk about a series of developments, which I'd put under the loose category of changing up the guard.

That would include earlier today, Joe Biden giving his first address to the U.N.

President of the United States declaring that after a quote, a period of relentless war, it's now given way to what he called a, quote, new era of relentless diplomacy.

Changing the Guard is occurring in Germany this weekend, the good people of Germany going to the polls to choose a successor to Angela Merkel.

What does this portend for Germany? Will it be an end to Germany's golden age?

Emmanuel Macron does not face an election this weekend, but he faces one next April, perhaps

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