The Summer Peace University (SPU) is an international academic and cultural initiative that unites universities, institutions, and communities from different continents with one shared purpose: to educate for peace, sustainability, and human dignity. It was founded by the Calabrian Institute of International Policies (IsCaPI) as part of a broader effort to link education, diplomacy, and civil society in a permanent dialogue between knowledge and responsibility.
The SPU operates from Belvedere Marittimo, a historic Mediterranean village in southern Italy that has been transformed into a “living campus.” Here, the boundaries between classrooms and public spaces disappear: the streets, squares, and cloisters of the town become open places of encounter, reflection, and creation. This integration between study and life represents the essence of the SPU — an educational experience that goes beyond formal instruction and becomes a shared human journey.
At its core, the SPU seeks to train a new generation of peace-oriented leaders and responsible global citizens capable of transforming academic knowledge into social innovation. It aims to cultivate individuals who combine analytical thinking with empathy, technical skill with ethical vision, and cultural identity with global awareness. In this sense, the SPU is both a university and a laboratory — a space where ideas are tested through cooperation and where learning is inseparable from action.

The mission of the SPU is to promote education as a dynamic instrument for peace and sustainability. It is built on three guiding principles: 1) education as a bridge between cultures; 2) cooperation as a path to mutual growth; and 3) knowledge as a common good that belongs to humanity as a whole. Through academic programs, Peace Labs, and intercultural exchanges, the SPU creates an environment in which diversity is not a difference to overcome but a resource to embrace.
The vision of the SPU is to establish a worldwide network of universities and institutions committed to the creation of a more just, sustainable, and peaceful civilization. It envisions a future where local territories and global challenges are connected through dialogue, and where universities act as engines of cultural diplomacy, environmental responsibility, and human solidarity.
The SPU is guided by a set of founding values that define both its educational method and its institutional identity:
• Peace as a process, not as an abstraction — something that grows through human relationships and shared projects.
• Knowledge as service, oriented toward the common good and the protection of life in all its forms.
• Intercultural dialogue as strength, recognizing that genuine understanding arises from coexistence and cooperation.
• Sustainability as responsibility, embracing ecological balance, social justice, and ethical leadership.
• Creativity as transformation, where education is not repetition but invention, not conformity but discovery.
Over time, the SPU has evolved into an ecosystem of global collaboration. Professors, students, and diplomats from more than twenty-five countries participate in its activities every year, creating a living network that continues beyond the academic period. The outcomes of this collective experience — the SPU White Paper, the Local Peace Projects (LPP), and the ongoing research collaborations — demonstrate that the university can be both a source of knowledge and an instrument of peace.
In essence, the SPU embodies a philosophy of Learning by Living — an approach that unites the intellectual and the emotional, the individual and the community, the local and the universal. It transforms education into a living dialogue among cultures and generations, proving that the path toward peace begins in the classroom, but it flourishes in the human encounter.