Challenging Iran's leader Ahmadinejad

There was a huge debate of whether or not to allow Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia University in New York on 24 September 2007, including protests on the university’s campus against his attendance.

Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia University felt immense pressure having invited Mr. Ahmadinejad. He defended his decision by saying: “I would like to invoke a major theme in the development of freedom of speech as a central value in our society. It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices. To hold otherwise would make vigorous debate impossible.”
The Iranian president's visit put Ahmadinejad in the public eye and gave him a platform to speak, not disregarding him and the views he is holding much to his right to freedom of speech.
It might have been an attempt by Bollinger, if not a very interesting confrontation, to expose Mr. Ahmadinejad to the public in order to help pressure him into changing the way he is leading his country or playing with the West. Nothing though it seems can provoke this man because he is not answering with violence to uncomfortable questions. He is not answering to uncomfortable questions with a direct answer either.
The West wants to negotiate with him in the aim to change the relationship of Iran and the West to progress. On the political level or social level, this requires different measures than the following. Bollinger started the debate by addressing Ahmadinejad with the following words: "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated."
The West needs to understand the Iranian culture, Ahmadinejad’s culture to negotiate successfully. Some other kind of psychological warfare is needed than solely treating Ahmadinejad disrespectfully.

For the transcript of Ahmadinejad's visit at Columbia University see here.