Commonly used techniques to study non-perturbative aspects of the strong interactions have a deep connection with rational approximants, and in particular with Pade approximants to meromorphic functions. However, only recently this connection has bee
n acknowledged and efforts at fully exploiting it are only starting. In this article I will briefly review the most prominent techniques used in non-perturbative strong interactions with special emphasis on its relation with Pade approximants. I will then concentrate on a set of open problems outside the scope of these conventional techniques where Pade approximants might be extremely useful.
