Gerald A. Dorfman is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor (by courtesy) of political science at Stanford. He was formerly associate director for research at the Hoover Institution.

Dorfman is an authority and does research on British and European politics including the European Union. He is also interested in U.S. foreign policy and international relations.

Dorfman's books include British Trade Unionism against the Trade Union Congress (Macmillan and Hoover); Government versus Trade Unionism in British Politics since 1968 (Macmillan and Hoover); and Wage Politics in Britain, 1945–1967 (Iowa State University and Charles Knight). He is also the coeditor (with Peter Duignan) of The Politics of Western Europe (Hoover) and (with Steffen Schmidt) of Soldiers in Politics (Geron-X).

He has been a member of the executive committee of the British Politics Group, as well as cofounder and editor of its Newsletter. He was also cofounder and publisher of the journals Educational Policy: Political Methodology and Politics and Society.

Subjects of his many presentations at conferences and before organizations include British politics, European and comparative politics, and American foreign policy.

Dorfman served in the Agency for International Development, Department of State. He was a professor of political science at Iowa State University, a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, and a distinguished visiting professor at San Jose State University.

At the Hoover Institution, besides being associate director, Dorfman has been curator of the Paul and Jean Hanna Archival Collection on the Role of Education, editor of the Institution's International Studies Working Paper series, and chair of the search committee for the Institution's Director. Dorfman was also President of Geron-X Publishers, publishers of social science and scientific journals.

Dorfman received his M.A. and his Ph.D., both in political science, from Columbia University. He received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin.