[en] A theory of tapered laser cooling for fast circulating ion beams in a storage ring is constructed. The authors describe the fundamentals of this new cooling scheme, emphasizing that it might be the most promising way to beam crystallization. The cooling rates are analytically evaluated to study the ideal operating condition. They discuss the physical implication of the tapering factor of cooling laser, and show how to determine its optimum value. Molecular dynamics method is employed to demonstrate the validity of the present theory