Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS)


POLIS PhD Student

Sebastian Herbstreuth

Sebastian Herbstreuth is a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics and International Studies (Centre of International Studies) at the University of Cambridge, where he also obtained an Mphil degree in International Relations in 2009. His doctoral thesis, ‘Oil Dependency in United States Discourse,’ examines how the problem of American dependency on foreign oil has been represented in U.S. foreign policy discourse since the 1970s, as well as the political effects of these modes of representation.

Sebastian’s broader research interests include the political economy of energy and the energy/society nexus. Previously, he has conducted research into the ‘resource curse’ phenomenon, the relationship between oil and democracy in oil exporting countries, and the political economy of fossil fuels in the Russian Federation and the South Caucasus.

Prior to coming to Cambridge, Sebastian pursued studies in History and Political Science at Universität Stuttgart in Germany and the Institute d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) de Bordeaux in France. He worked, inter alia, with the Committee on Foreign Relations of the German Parliament in Berlin and the German Foreign Service in France.

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