Our current understanding of the processes driving the thermalization and isotropization of the quark gluon plasma (QGP) created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions (URHICs) is reviewed. Initially, the phenomenological evidence in favour of the creation of a thermal but momentum–space anisotropic QGP in URHICs is discussed. Further, the degree of isotropization using viscous (dissipative) hydrodynamics, weak-coupling approaches to QGP dynamics, and strong-coupling approaches to QGP dynamics are discussed. Finally, recent progress in the area of real-time non-Abelian gauge field simulations and non-Abelian Boltzmann–Vlasov-based hard-loop simulations are reported.