%0 Journal Article %T QCD String as an Effective String %A Yuri Makeenko %J Physics %D 2012 %I arXiv %X There are two cases where QCD string is described by an effective theory of long strings: the static potential and meson scattering amplitudes in the Regge regime. I show how the former can be solved in the mean-field approximation, justified by the large number of space-time dimensions, and argue that it turns out to be exact for the Nambu--Goto string. By adding extrinsic curvature I demonstrate how the tachyonic instability of the ground-state energy can be cured by operators less relevant in the infrared. %U http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.0922v1