‘Moving Fast; Breaking Things’: A New Doctrine Takes Root; A New Era of Coerced Dominance

Alastair Crooke, 2 Oct 2025

Creeping, thunderous changes are underway in the West. A new political doctrine has taken root: Western Conservative (and younger) populist thinking is being rebuilt as something rougher, meaner, and far less sentimental, or tolerant.

It aspires to emerge too, as ‘dominant’, deliberately coercive, and radical. Throwing components of the exiting order into the air to see if they can be landed in a beneficial way (i.e. greater rent revenues) for the US.

The so-called Rules-Based Order blueprint (if it ever truly existed beyond narrative) has been ripped up. Today it is war without limits -- without rules; without law; and in complete disdain for the UN Charter. Ethical boundaries, more particularly, are dismissed in parts of the West as ‘weak’ ‘moral relativism’. The point is to leave opponents stunned and frozen stick figures.

In parallel, something profound has re-shaped Israeli and US foreign policy: Ignoring rules purposively to shock. Moving fast and breaking things. Over recent months, Israel has struck with military force in the West Bank, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Qatar and Tunisia -- besides Gaza. In June, these two nuclear states bombed the nuclear facilities of a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty under IAEA protection --Iran.

This ‘moving fast; breaking things’ phenomenon was clearly evident when Israel, with US support, launched its sneak attack on Iran on 12 June. It was evident too in the bureaucratic speed which took many by surprise, as the ‘European 3’ members of the JCPOA effected the ‘Snapback’ of all JCPOA-mandated sanctions on Iran. Iranian attempts at diplomacy were swept aside remorselessly.

The invocation of sanctions Snapback was clearly rushed through to pre-empt the imminent ‘sunset’ of the entire JCPOA framework on 18 October 2025 -- after which the JCPOA will be ‘no more’.