Introduction. War in the nuclear age regardless on the options of limited or local nuclear military conflict represents the apogee of the global crisis of humanity. Theoretical analysis. The purpose of the article is to identify the signs and prerequisites of the crisis of the global liberal civilizational project. The novelty of the research is manifested in the author's argumentation of the relationship of the philosophy of the war of western rationalism with pseudo-liberal modeling of modern civilizational dynamics. In the process of problem research the principle of historicism, socio-cultural approach and methods of critical philosophical reflection are used. The author proves that the key feature of the pseudo-liberal metamorphosis is the orientation of the political strategy of the ruling circles of the United States to achieve the status of a "hegemon country". This practically means abandoning the democratic principle in constructing a polycentric model of the world order. Conclusion. The prerequisite for such a conceptual revolution is the discrepancy between the liberal idea of freedom and the democratic demands of equality, which gave rise to contradictions in the concept of "freedom in inequality". The consequence of this divergence of liberalism and democracy is characterized by the transition from dialogue to war as the priority way of solving political problems. The article consistently highlights the theoretical and moral prerequisites for the transformation of a civilizational project into a pseudo-liberal one.