Towards a Theory of the QCD String

<!--HTML--><p>I will review recent progress in understanding the dynamics of confining strings in non-supersymmetric gluodynamics in 3 and 4 space time&nbsp;dimensions. I will argue that the present lattice data allows to formulate a non-trivial straw man Ansatz for the worldsheet theory of long&nbsp;confining strings.&nbsp;According to this Ansatz, pure gluodynamics in 3D is described by a non-critical bosonic string theory without any extra local worldsheet degrees of freedom.&nbsp;I argue that the Ansatz allows to fix quantum numbers of (almost) all glueball states. I confront the resulting predictions with the properties of approximately&nbsp;39 lightest glueball states observed on a lattice and find a good agreement.</p>