The interplay of narratives and identities between the West and the Middle East results in a reciprocal, but imbalanced, exchange of ideas, tropes, and concepts that present a number of evolving opportunities and challenges for policymakers. Political, economic, and community leaders must negotiate a set of difficult questions: Are we truly witnessing a historic political change in the Middle East on the scale characterized by global media? Are historical undercurrents simply continuing to drive events under new packaging? What is change, what is hype, and what can be used to shape meaningful policy? Complicating the answers to these questions, external impact on the construction of Middle Eastern identities varies based on the external actor, the internal dynamics of the Middle East (based on nation, ethnicity and region), and the impact of scattered diasporas. U.S. and multinational policymakers have seen cascading second- and third- order effects of their descriptions of the Middle East and Middle East policies. George W. Bush, for example, did immeasurable and unintentional harm to U.S. Middle East policies in 2001 by couching the Global War on Terror as a "Crusade," exhuming centuries-old divisions between the Christian and Muslim worlds and seemingly confirming the rhetoric of Islamic extremists. Messages intended for U.S. domestic audiences cannot be crafted for domestic consumption alone, thanks to the unending reach of global media. The author examines how political, economic and community leaders can help answer questions of rhetoric and substance related to external identity constructs and narratives adopted by groups in the Middle East. Additionally he will explore how U.S. leaders can recognize the unintended consequences of their own narratives and harness the opportunities to utilize those narratives to shape favorable conditions to U.S. policies.