  This is the content of a set of lectures given at the XIII Jorge Andre Swieca
Summer School on Particles and Fields, held in Campos do Jordao, Brazil in
January 2005. They intend to be a basic introduction to the topic of
gauge/gravity duality in confining theories. We start by reviewing some key
aspects of the low energy physics of non-Abelian gauge theories. Then, we
present the basics of the AdS/CFT correspondence and its extension both to
gauge theories in different spacetime dimensions with sixteen supercharges and
to more realistic situations with less supersymmetry. We discuss the different
options of interest: placing D-branes at singularities and wrapping D-branes in
calibrated cycles of special holonomy manifolds. We finally present an outline
of a number of non-perturbative phenomena in non-Abelian gauge theories as seen
from supergravity.
