Confinement vs. screening in 3d (effective high T) gauge theories

The physics of electric and magnetic screening in non-Abelian finite temperature field theory is closely related to the non-perturbative properties of the corresponding three-dimensional effective theories which are confining. I discuss recent lattice results obtained for the mass spectrum, string tension and the static potential in SU(2) pure gauge theory and the SU(2) Higgs model and their connection to screening masses. The non-perturbative $O(g_3^2)$ corrections to the Debye mass are evaluated.