War, Peace, and Universities

Calls for dialogue and diplomacy are so often abstracted that it is hard for some to imagine the possible benefits of reaching out to adversaries, especially men as radical as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. University President Lee Bollinger's bold challenge to Ahmadinejad to allow a delegation of Columbia faculty and students into Iran's closed academic system sounded like a pipe dream. By the end of Ahmadinejad's speech, the idea was miraculously accepted by the most avowed foe of the American government.

The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran closed with: "I invite college faculty and students to Iran ... You are welcome to visit any university you choose." The possibility of Columbia students and faculty traveling to Iran and speaking to the country's academic community would not have been possible if it were not for President Bollinger's strong support and defense of free speech in America.

As some of the future leaders of America and the world, the students of Columbia University have the chance to engage with the students of Iran in an intellectual environment that can open up an ongoing exchange, fostering diplomatic, cultural, and human progress.

Revolutionary change feeds off of inspiration, alternate models of how life can be, and sheer hope. When the conversations commence, the dreams of a people can't shrink. Analogies of botany are notoriously monopolized by the Right at the moment, but seeds are really being planted. Visiting American students and faculty will present another way of being, an alternate to the dreary half-life of totalitarian oppression. It can never be a perfect model, and Columbia or the American university system does not presume to be without flaw or limitation. It can, however, provide a better example for students and faculty on the other side of the world, waiting for an airlift of hope, a bolstering delegation evidencing the true rewards of a freer life.
As the vanguard of the hardliners in Iran, Ahmadinejad does not realize that by opening the space for remaking the academic landscape, he is initiating the beginning of the end of his regime. Like the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and countless other models of regime-opening, time and again the decision to ease restrictions on civil and intellectual life forces totalitarianism to cede political freedom. As Bollinger alluded, the Iranian regime is at least nervous enough to crack down on the intelligentsia in order to stave off a Velvet Revolution. The very perception of a need to react to anti-regime sentiments and activity among the young and the academies signifies it is already too late to prevent major change. Now, the promise of a new, larger conversation with the West promises that preserving the authoritarian status quo will be completely impossible for Ahmadinejad and his allies.

The faculty of Columbia University took the initiative in what amounts to a diplomatic initiative. The State Department and the White House have been, in contrast, unable to reach a similar breakthrough in the decades since 1979. This in itself is significant, because at the very heart of the University is the pursuit of truth and knowledge. Universities around the globe are established with the goal of exchanging ideas and continuing productive discourse. The charge of the U.S. government's foreign policy establishment is similarly to build knowledge and diplomatic strength and links, but narrow-minded politics has stymied any progress on its part. This may in fact be a positive development. New, nongovernmental organizations like universities are taking the lead as old establishment institutions grow increasingly irrelevant.

While the academic setting is seemingly the perfect place to seek an open, honest discussion, it is sad and infuriating that university students and faculty are forced to open dialogue with Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is wrong that the politically-appointed leaders of the State Department are less open to communications with Iran than the faculty at Columbia. We have an extremely capable foreign service that is not being utilized. It is time to allow it to do its work. It is time to establish diplomatic and cultural relations with an avowedly willing partner.

President Bollinger told President Ahmadinejad, "[Universities] can't make war or peace, we can only make minds." He may well be wrong: Columbia is well on its way to building a bridge to lasting peace with the ancient nation of Iran.

Evan Thomas, a Columbia College senior majoring in history, is the lead activist for the Columbia University College Democrats Activist Council. Nancy Huemer, a Barnard College sophomore, is the media director for the Roosevelt Institution.