While President Barack Obama said in his speech Sunday night that the death of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden “marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat Al Qaeda”, there remains many questions unanswered about the future of terrorism and the security of the United States and its allies now that the symbol of terrorism has been defeated.

“[Bin Laden’s death] is symbolically very important but the War on Terror still remains and it's still going to take us a long time,” said Robert Finn, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. “[The United States and its allies] still have to do all the work they need to maintain security.”

Finn, a lecturer of public and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, will give a talk a the Princeton Public Library tonight (Tuesday) at 7 titled "Afghanistan: Talking About Peace."

He served as ambassador to Afghanistan in 2002-2003 after serving as ambassador to Tajikistan and co-edited the book "Building State and Security in Afghanistan."

Finn said Monday that Bin Laden’s death has made the world safer for a bit.

“We'll have to see what happens,” he said. “I'm sure [Muslim extremists] will take some action in trying to revenge his death and will view him as a martyr.”

Bin Laden was not playing an active role in Al Qaeda because the United States had placed him under great scrutiny but he was an active figurehead, he said.

But Finn also believes that bin Laden’s death will be useful toward persuading Afghans to rebuild their country.

“As we start to move towards some kind of peace in Afghanistan, one argument we can now make is [these Arab al-Qaida] put [Afghans] in this problem that you're in and now is a good time to get out of it,” he said

He also said that bin Laden’s death might be the opening the Afghans need to separate the themselves from the Taliban and from al-Qaida.

As far as al-Qaida’s future and presence in the Middle East, Finn believes that their presence will slowly diminish in the region.

“I do believe al-Qaida will lose ground eventually because they're mostly killing Muslims and people are fed up with it,” he said.

Bin Laden was found and killed in a Pakistani compound in Abbottabad, which was only about a third of a mile from the military academy of the Pakistani Army and about an hour’s drive north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

While Obama said in his speech that the United States’ “counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden”, Finn believes there are going to be serious discussionswith Pakistan as to how bin Laden could have remained in the compound without the knowledge of Pakistani officials.

“I'm sure there were people in Pakistan who knew very well that he was there,” he said.

But glancing at the international press Monday, Finn said that the responses from leaders has beenoverwhelmingly positive, including Turkey and Pakistan.

“Bin Laden was universally despised because of his murders and his viciousness,” he said. “I think most people worldwide are pleased that he's been put out and pleased that the United States was able to do it.”