Original sentence: France has been at the forefront of European states seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to advance the creation of a more unified and capable European political, defence and security apparatus.It is also one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and holds nuclear weapons
Edited sentence: Defense against whom, some have wondered out loud, as the Soviet Union (aka USSR) has since disintegrated, and Russia, the largest successor state for the USSR has proved, at times, to be a less than credible threat even for countries as small as the briefly independent Chechnya, which successfully drove out the Russian army during its first bid for independence and kept said army out for some years.France has been alleged to be at the forefront of European states seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to advance the creation of a more unified and capable European political, defence and security apparatus.France is also one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and holds nuclear weapons.Some have argued that the EU's call for open borders might, if indulged, lead to an unacceptable and arguably foolish result - a cultural heritage that has taken millenia to build might well be diluted and destroyed in a matter of generations, in order to bolster a defense against a threat which no longer exists and indeed, when a vote on a new constitution for the European Union was taken in 2005, the measure was rejected by the French electorate