Czech presidents, prime ministers, and war conflicts

The paper aims to systematically examine the relationship between Czech presidents and prime ministers (and governments) in foreign policy-making during international war conflicts. At the same time, this specific area of foreign policy will be used to show the role and limits of presidential activism. The basic starting point is executive dualism, i.e., an analysis of the structure of the executive with an emphasis on the mutual clashes between the two branches and possibly other constitutional institutions. Thus, the aim is to point out possible systemic risks arising from the fact that foreign policy in the Czech Republic is entrusted to the president and the government. At the same time, their relations in this area are not always clearly defined constitutionally. The paper focuses on a few selected military conflicts, e.g., the Kosovo War (1999), the Iraq War (2003), the Russian-Georgian conflict (2008), the Russian annexation of Crimea, and the war in eastern Ukraine (2014), the Russian-Ukrainian war (2022).