Integrability in QCD and beyond

Yang--Mills theories in four space-time dimensions possess a hidden symmetry which does not exhibit itself as a symmetry of classical Lagrangians but is only revealed on the quantum level. It turns out that the effective Yang--Mills dynamics in several important limits is described by completely integrable systems that prove to be related to the celebrated Heisenberg spin chain and its generalizations. In this review we explain the general phenomenon of complete integrability and its realization in several different situations. As a prime example, we consider in some detail the scale dependence of composite (Wilson) operators in QCD and super-Yang--Mills (SYM) theories. High-energy (Regge) behavior of scattering amplitudes in QCD is also discussed and provides one with another realization of the same phenomenon that differs, however, from the first example in essential details. As the third example, we address the low-energy effective action in a N=2 SYM theory which, contrary to the previous two cases, corresponds to a classical integrable model. Finally, we include a short overview of recent attempts to use gauge/string duality in order to relate integrability of Yang--Mills dynamics with the hidden symmetry of a string theory on a curved background.