TRENDS Research and Advisory has released the first part of a comprehensive study entitled “A reading of the most important books on understanding and combating terrorism.” The study provides a critical analysis of four books on understanding the phenomenon of terrorism and mechanisms to combat it. The first part of the study, prepared  by TRENDS’ Department of Political Islam, focuses  on two books: “The ABCs of Terrorist Financing” by Nathalie Joullet, a member of the French Senate, which provides an analytical presentation of the largest possible amount of resources of financing terrorism and terrorist organizations, as well as the means and tools that countries possess to combat it. The second book “The Psychology of Extremism… A view into the Motives”, by Ari W. Kruglanski, Katalina Kubitz, and Ewa Zumowska, focuses on the drivers and causes of radicalization resulting from life’s imbalances across different levels of analysis. In the first book, the study concluded that terrorism is closely linked to financial crime, organized crime, such as human and drug trafficking. Financing terrorism is made possible by a few thousand dollars, and focusing on low-cost terrorism is key to understanding the 2015 Paris attacks. The author addressed the most important institutions combating the financing of terrorism, namely the Financial Action Task Force and the European Union Law Enforcement Agency, the European Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ECTC), the TRACFIN Foundation for Intelligence Processing and Action against Secret Financial Services, The Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units. The second book, on the psychology of extremism, shows that extremism does not appear suddenly; it is a gradual path that eventually leads to a change in mentality and pattern of thinking, and then a change in behavior, and a trend towards extremism. Extremism is not limited to one aspect, he said, but includes various areas, such as political bias, religious orientation, sports polarization, adoption of violence, etc., and is caused by imbalances in life, noting that terrorist organizations effectively employ the Internet to recruit new operatives. The study recommended the need to enhance international assistance to the most vulnerable countries in combating the financing of terrorism, support coordination between countries in enacting laws and action on the ground to combat the financing of terrorism, and understand the drivers of extremism and its origins in order to develop effective preventive programs. Through the publication of this study, TRENDS Research and Advisory aims to enrich the debate on this pressing issue and support international efforts to combat terrorism. The second part of the study will be released soon.