The academic program of the Summer Peace University (SPU) represents the heart of its educational mission — a dynamic intersection of knowledge, experience, and intercultural dialogue designed to transform learning into action. It combines academic excellence with human experience, theoretical rigor with practical engagement, and the pursuit of peace with the realities of a changing world.

Conceived as a living academic ecosystem, the SPU integrates lectures, research, field experiences, artistic events, and public discussions into a single coherent pathway. This approach allows participants to explore the global challenges of our time — from environmental sustainability and economic transformation to human rights, migration, and cultural coexistence — within an experiential learning environment that unites analysis and empathy, theory and participation.

The SPU program is divided into ten main components, each representing a pillar of the overall educational experience: What is the SPU, Why the SPU is Unique, SPU Methodology, Pre-Program Preparation, Academic Program 2026, Peace Labs, Peace Talks, Public Forums, White Paper, and Local Peace Projects (LPP). Together, these elements form a continuum of learning that begins before the students’ arrival in Italy and extends beyond their departure, through projects and research developed in their own countries.

Each academic year, the SPU defines a central theme that frames all educational and cultural activities. For 2026, the focus will be on “Humanity at the Crossroads: Education and Leadership for a Sustainable Civilization.” This theme will guide lectures, laboratories, and public debates, encouraging participants to confront the ethical and strategic challenges of global development and to envision new paradigms of cooperation between nations, generations, and disciplines.

The program is structured around four integrated dimensions: Mind, Heart, Hands, and Spirit. Each week of the in-person program corresponds to one of these dimensions, combining political and economic analysis with social innovation, creative exploration, and spiritual reflection. Through this progression, students experience the SPU as a process of intellectual awakening and personal transformation.

The academic activities are conducted by professors, diplomats, and experts from partner universities across four continents, ensuring a multidisciplinary perspective and a constant dialogue between local and global realities. Lectures are complemented by thematic Peace Labs, simulation exercises, workshops, and intercultural exchanges, fostering cooperation rather than competition and cultivating shared responsibility among participants.

In addition to its formal academic structure, the SPU integrates cultural participation and public engagement as part of the learning process. Artistic performances, exhibitions, and community forums allow students to experience knowledge not only as a cognitive process but as a form of human expression. This pedagogical model — Learning by Living — transforms the village of Belvedere Marittimo into a widespread classroom, where every place becomes a potential space for reflection and encounter.

Throughout the program, students are encouraged to develop their own Local Peace Project (LPP) — a concrete initiative to be implemented in their home countries within twelve months of completing the SPU. This project serves as a bridge between academic reflection and social transformation, embodying the SPU’s belief that peace is not an abstract goal but a set of practical actions rooted in community life.

The SPU White Paper, drafted collectively at the end of each edition, represents the intellectual synthesis of the program. It gathers analyses, proposals, and recommendations addressed to European and international institutions, demonstrating that education can be a form of diplomacy — a way of building understanding through reasoned dialogue and shared purpose.

Ultimately, the SPU academic program aims not only to inform but to inspire: to awaken a sense of global citizenship grounded in ethical leadership, cultural empathy, and civic courage. It is a university without walls — where knowledge walks through the streets, where students and professors live together as a community, and where the pursuit of peace becomes both an academic discipline and a way of life.