The cost was high and Britain no longer had the wealth or the inclination to maintain an empire, so it granted independence to most of the Empire. The new states typically joined the Commonwealth of Nations. The United Kingdom has sought to be a leading member of the United Nations, the European Union and NATO. Since the 1990s, however, large-scale devolution movements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have brought into question the degree of unity of this constantly evolving political union.