New Delhi, Dec. 16 -- In 2025, India's vaunted strategic autonomy was tested in ways few foreign policy mavens in the country had imagined. Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered the year with a foreign policy playbook built on multi-alignment, personalised outreach and a claim to be a bridge between great powers. By the year's close, that posture had produced a string of diplomatic bruises: punitive tariffs from Washington, an ambiguous military episode on the western frontier dubbed Operation Sindoor, and a diplomatic sprint from arch foe Pakistan that culminated in a headline-grabbing defence pact with Saudi Arabia.

If India must attain a semblance of agenda-setting role in geopolitics, it must do more than sit equidistant from rival ca...