Modelling hadronic interactions in HEP MC generators

HEP event generators aim to describe high-energy collisions in full exclusive detail. They combine perturbative matrix elements and parton showers with dynamical models of less well-understood phenomena such as hadronization, diffraction, and the so-called underlying event. We briefly summarise some of the main concepts relevant to the modelling of soft/inclusive hadron interactions in MC generators, in particular PYTHIA, with emphasis on questions recently highlighted by LHC data.