India, Jan. 11 -- As the global order fragments into overlapping crises and competing blocs, a familiar question is being asked with renewed urgency in Western capitals: Where does India stand? The question has resurfaced again because of India's notably restrained and carefully calibrated response to the United States-Venezuela crisis-an episode that has again revealed New Delhi's policy of "strategic ambiguity" and how it is a constant feature of its foreign policy. India's response has been neither aggressive nor compliant. And that is precisely the point.

New Delhi's much-debated "strategic ambiguity" is often portrayed as hesitation or moral evasiveness. In reality, it is a carefully constructed strategy-best described as strategic ...