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This open access book is the documentary of the Second International Forum on Financial Mathematics and Financial Technology, with focus on selected aspects of the current and upcoming trends in FinTech. In detail, the included scientific papers cover financial mathematics and FinTech, presenting the innovative mathematical models and state-of-the-art technologies such as deep learning, with the aim to improve the financial analysis and decision-making and enhance the quality of financial services and risk control. The variety of the papers delivers added value for both scholars and practitioners where they will find perfect integration of elegant mathematical models and up-to-date data mining technologies in financial market analysis. Due to COVID-19, the conference was held virtually on August 13–15, 2021, jointly held by the School of Mathematics of Renmin University of China, the Engineering Research Center of Financial Computing and Digital Engineering of Ministry of Education, the Statistics and Big Data Research Institute of Renmin University of China, the Blockchain Research Institute of Renmin University of China, the Zhongguancun Internet Finance Research Institute, and the Renmin University Press.

The wide array of legal and policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have significant implications regarding the functioning of countries and their respective societies. This book addresses the impact of international legislative and policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in a range of countries. To aid the reader in understanding country-specific developments, each chapter focuses on a specific country and addresses the legal frameworks and policy approaches used to support measures to prevent transmission and otherwise reduce the impact of the virus on society and the economy. Sample topics discussed in the work include: The effect certain policies may have on civil liberties, such as due process, and the right to privacy in specific countries; The provision of public goods in the face of the pandemic. Policymakers in public health agencies and other branches of government, along with academics studying global pandemic response, homeland security, and emergency management will be able to use this book as a comprehensive resource to understand the current state of COVID-19 policies around the world and the potential future effects of these policies.

Abstract
This article examines contestation and change in the global climate change regime, considered as a suborder of the broader Liberal International Order (LIO). The extensive literature on the LIO has overlooked the important case of climate institutions. The article begins by establishing that the climate regime is indeed part of the LIO, considering both its institutional and ideational features. I then outline the most important episodes of contestation against the regime, led at different times by the United States and emerging powers in the developing world, and note that the sources of contestation were partly endogenous to the regime itself. Despite persistent political challenges and the slow progress of global climate cooperation, the climate regime has remained largely intact and resilient. I explain this outcome by pointing to institutional design features and strategies that allowed the suborder to absorb and accommodate contestation before it escalated, including the nonbinding approach to commitments reflected in the Paris Agreement. The article concludes with a discussion of broader lessons for the LIO and for the design and effectiveness of climate institutions.

AbstractIn this paper, first, we measure Chinese time preferences as a whole and by region based on the Euler equation under an assumption of rational expectation. The calculating results show that the rates of Chinese time preference are markedly low for most hypothetical risk attitudes over the concerning period, and there exists heterogeneity in time preferences across regions in China. Second, compared with the estimates for other advanced and emerging countries under the same assumptions and same methodology, the rates of Chinese time preference are the lowest for any given risk preference, suggesting that Chinese are more patient during the time of our examinations. Third, our measured time preferences are powerful in predicting China's high saving rates and rapid growth rates of gross domestic product. In addition, the differences in economic growth rates between China and other sample countries can be partially explained by the differences of estimated cross‐countries time preferences within our sample period. Fourth, we investigate the additional factors that affect the Chinese time preferences. Our study provides insights on the regional and international differences in economic growth rates and other economic outcomes.

The question of a general part for EU Private International Law has attracted research and debate among PIL scholars long before the EU started to codify this legal field after the Amsterdam Treaty. However, the EU has made no attempt to make use of the existing research to adopt a comprehensive regulation of the general part of EU PIL and has adopted sector-specific regulation with inconsistent regulation of several general institutes. For the occasion of the anniversary of the Zeitschrift für Europarechtliche Studien this paper revisits the topic to answer the question which institutes of PIL should be codified in a general part of EU PIL. The conclusions are made based on four criteria: which general institutes of PIL are already regulated in the EU; are they generally applicable to all special parts of EU PIL; what is their practical relevance; and is there a need for their uniform regulation. The paper analyzes the discrepancies between existing general institutes of EU PIL and offers brief discussions on the possible formulation of some of the institutes for the general part.

AbstractWe live in an ever increasingly globalized and highly mediatized world dominated by images, in which machine learning helps the pervasive real cameras to scan and analyze our daily life. At the same time, visual media technologies and global echo-chambers are able to support revolutions or mobilize protest movements across the globe. Yet, in the field of international relations and new global studies, the dynamics of globalization are still generally approached by means of textual-philosophical investigation and the unit of analysis of the nation-state or the global cities, by looking with suspicion at, if not disregarding, the surplus of value of the image. In challenging some of the basic assumptions of globalization hypothesis, this study addresses the following research question: how has globality been transformed by globalized spatial practices of resistance? Informed by theory and methodologically articulated, this article calls for the epistemic function and power of images in the study of globalization. It also highlights strengths and weaknesses of a visual approach in the meaning-making process of the symbolic and social construction of the common sense of the global in people's everyday life, under present conditions.

Maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region is strategically important to not only the surrounding states, but also those with an interest in its good governance, to support safe passage and natural resources extraction. Criminal threats, such as maritime piracy and illegal fishing, enabled by corruption and the potential for terrorism, undermine regional maritime security and therefore, there is incentive for states to respond cooperatively to secure the region. Drawing on broken windows crime theory, implicitly supporting the continuation of criminal threats within the region may enables exiting crimes to proliferate. With varying legal and political frameworks and interests across the Indo-Pacific region, achieving cooperation and harmonisation in response to regional maritime-based criminal threats can be challenging. As such, to respond to criminal threats that undermine maritime security, this article argues that from a criminological perspective, aligning states through existing international law enables cooperative regional responses. Indeed, given the prevalence of corruption within the region enabling serious criminal threats, harmonising through existing counter-corruption architecture may be a suitable platform to build from.

Abstract
The eighteenth century met a growing interest in the production of scientific instruments (mathematical, astronomical, nautical and philosophical) offering the means to achieve new physics concepts and greater precision, offering answers to some of the big questions, such as the shape of the Earth and longitude at sea. International scientific programmes promoted the production, acquisition and perfection of instruments and the progressive dissemination of experimental physics education set the tone for these instruments. The connections between instrument makers and the gentry in relation to these instruments produced or constituted important influences that were previously almost unthinkable. The spread of scientific instruments developed in close connection between producers and recipients, with the global spread of major scientific quests to solve and naturally with the impact Newtonian physics and experimental philosophy acquired at the time. J. H. de Magellan, who had a particular interest in and knowledge of scientific instruments, was actively engaged in this process of dissemination across Europe. After spending twenty years in London he could accept the demands of the Iberian courts for instruments that would allow them to carry out their work in South America.

A large number of scholars, social activists, as well as a growing percentage of the general population, attribute this rise in global inequalities to the cause of the high levels of poverty, environmental degradation and socio-economic instability currently being experienced in both developed and developing countries. This wide-ranging instability has set off an intense debate that questions the legitimacy and future of Western-style free market capitalism and its corresponding open and liberal social values. This seemingly growing rejection of Western free market ideals and the rebuke of the political and economic elite that controls the world's wealth have also engendered within the academic community a wide range of non-traditional and non-western perspectives that are helping to broaden the conversation and put forth new, eclectic and innovative approaches to solving these issues. It is with this wider goal of expanding the global debate countering the Western biases in our approaches to social, economic, conflict and political issues that The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies and Development presents the following articles, which contribute to a better understanding of these challenges.

In order to explore presidential rhetoric, media coverage and its contribution to public opinion, this thesis will examine these facets in the matters of international terrorism. More specifically, terrorism in India, Syria, and Afghanistan will be assessed and compared during two time periods: 2003-2004, and 2011-2012. This thesis will predominately attempt to evaluate the relationship between the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) and actual coverage. By searching for key words in presidential speeches from President Obama and President Bush, evaluating the news coverage of terrorist activity in all three countries, this thesis will attempt to show the impact of presidential speeches and media coverage on public opinion. I hypothesize that in the case of India and Syria, presidential speeches and the media will cover the topic of Syria's terrorism more than India's. I also expect to find that in the case of India and Afghanistan, the media and president will cover Afghanistan's terrorism more than India's. The results suggested that the relationship between the GTI, media coverage, and presidential mentions is inconclusive. Findings also indicated that presidential rhetoric is still apparent in President Obama and Bush's speeches, and that terrorism has been mentioned less over time.

"2014 jähren sich in Kigali zum 20. Mal jene knapp 100 Tage, die annähernd 800.000 Menschen, überwiegend unbewaffneten Zivilistlnnen, auf grausame Art das Leben kosteten. Seit dem Völkermord in Ruanda und dem Massaker von Srebrenica (1995), die trotz der Präsenz von Blauhelmsoldaten der Vereinten Nationen (VN) nicht verhindert werden konnten, bemüht sich die Organisation auf allen Ebenen, den entstandenen Imageschaden zu beheben und hat Protection of Civilians (POC) oder den Schutz von Zivilistlnnen im Kontext bewaffneter Konflikte zu einer prioritären Peacekeeping (PK)-Aufgabe erklärt. Seit 1999 werden VN-PK-Missionen regelmäßig mit einem POC-Mandat ausgestattet, sind zahlreiche thematische Resolutionen, Berichte, Konzepte und Trainingsmaterialien entwickelt worden. Als wesentliches Referenzdokument gilt das DPKO/ DFS2 Operational Concept zu POC in VN-PK-Missionen, das die Anwendung von Waffengewalt zum Schutz von Zivilistlnnen als letztes Mittel vorsieht. Das POC-Rahmenwerk der Europäischen Union ist weniger umfangreich als jenes der VN, baut aber auf deren Erfahrungen und Prinzipien auf und gewinnt zunehmend an Bedeutung im Hinblick auf internationale Einsätze im Rahmen der Gemeinsamen Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik der EU (GSVP, engl. CSDP). Der Rights-Based Approach der EU ist grundsätzlich mit dem POC-Konzept für VN-Peacekeeping kompatibel, wirft angesichts der aktuellen robusten VN-PK-Mandate aber auch Fragen bzw. potenzielle Reibungspunkte auf. In Österreich existiert zwar ein politisches Bekenntnis zu POC, allerdings ohne einen entsprechenden strategischen Rahmen. Maßnahmen zur Unterstützung der VN werden ad hoc vor allem im Bereich Training und Advocacy gesetzt. Ein wesentlicher Partner im Rahmen der österreichischen POC-Agenden ist das Österreichische Studienzentrum für Frieden und Konfliktlösung (ÖSFK), das sich seit Jahrzehnten dem Schwerpunkt 'Protection' widmet und sich vor allem im Trainingsbereich als Kompetenzzentrum für Kinderschutz und POC etablieren konnte." (Autorenreferat)

The aim of the paper is to explore the process of the EU democracy promotion in Serbia, showing how the low quality of democracy established and the crisis in the EU-Serbian relationship in the 2008 were both product of the parallel process of anchoring and de-anchoring of Serbian democracy into the EU hub. The interests and strategies guiding the EU norm promotion in Serbia interfered with the domestic factors in a manner to exercise the systemic influence that modelled the domestic actors' preferences and short-term strategies. Such influence was strongest on the central actor of the party system who, drawing benefits from both the EU's intervention and the dynamics of polarized pluralism type of Serbia's party system, was strongly encouraged to change its preferences in both the democratization process and in the country's foreign policy, shifting from being a pro-democratic, pro-EU actor to being a fake change agent and pro-nationalist, anti-EU party. The paper highlights the undesired, unpredicted systemic effects of the external rule promotion, drawing important lessons for the international actors involved in the democracy promotion efforts from Serbia's case. Adapted from the source document.

When China launched an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon in January 2007 to destroy one of its inactive weather satellites, most reactions from academics and U.S. space experts focused on a potential military "space race" between the United States and China. Overlooked, however, is China's growing role as global competitor on the non-military side of space. China's space program goes far beyond military counterspace applications and manifests manned space aspirations, including lunar exploration. Its pursuit of both commercial and scientific international space ventures constitutes a small, yet growing, percentage of the global space launch and related satellite service industry. It also highlights China's willingness to cooperate with nations far away from Asia for political and strategic purposes. These partnerships may constitute a challenge to the United States and enhance China's "soft power" among key American allies and even in some regions traditionally dominated by U.S. influence (e.g., Latin America and Africa). Thus, an appropriate U.S. response may not lie in a "hard power" counterspace effort but instead in a revival of U.S. space outreach of the past, as well as implementation of more business-friendly export control policies.