  We discuss several aspects of rare decays and CP violation in the standard
model including the impact of the recent top quark discovery. In particular we
review the present status of next-to-leading QCD calculations in this field
stressing their importance in the determination of the parameters in the
Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. We emphasize that the definitive tests of the
standard model picture of rare decays and CP violation will come through a {\it
simultaneous} study of CP asymmetries in $B_{d,s}^0$ decays, the rare decays
$K^+ \to \pi^+\nu \bar\nu$ and $K_L \to \pi^0\nu\bar\nu$, and $(B^0_d-\bar
B^0_d)/(B^0_s-\bar B^0_s)$.
