United Nations: Nearly eight decades after its establishment, the UN Security Council contemplates further expansion and development. But as everywhere the question arises where and how to start.

Five countries that were major powers at the end of World War II have dominated the United Nations and its most important body for its 77-year history. The council remains in its current configuration despite a four-decade clamour for other countries to join that VIP group to reflect the dramatically changed 21st-century world.

The council's failure to respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has, at this month's gathering of world leaders shone a spotlight on another misstep, Consumed by national interests and regional rivalries, the 193 UN member nations have blocked an expansion of the body charged with ensuring international peace and security.

"To save future generations from the scourges of war" is written at the beginning of the UN Charter. This desire reflected the post-war era in which the United Nations was created.

Advocates say a revamped council with more voices could do more justice to that premise. But disagreements over the size, composition and powers of the reformed council remain questionable whether it will ever change.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pinpointed the problem in 2020: “The nations that came out on top more than seven decades ago have refused to contemplate the reforms needed to change power relations in international institutions.”

"Inequality starts at the top — in global institutions," Guterres said then. "Addressing inequality must start by reforming them." But it hasn't happened yet.

The 15-member Security Council has 10 non-permanent members from all regions of the world elected for two-year terms without veto power and five permanent members with veto power: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

Two of those members are represented by different governments than they were when the United Nations was established in 1945. The Republic of China, now governed by Taiwan, is excluded from virtually all U.N. bodies, which are occupied by the mainland-governed People's Republic. The Soviet Union dissolved in the early 1990s, leaving Russia as its surviving power.

It is Russia's use, and threatened use, of its veto that has blocked the council from taking action on the now seven-month-old war in Ukraine. It is a failure noted by many leaders in their General Assembly speeches, alongside their perennial complaints that the council is outdated and unrepresentative.

The United States supports permanent seats in Germany, Japan, and India.

French President Emmanuel Macron said international consensus is needed for peace.

Addressing the assembly on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a "more democratic" council that would expand representation from Africa, Asia and Latin America to include India and Brazil, and told a news conference that adding "hostile" Western countries like Japan and Germany would bring nothing new to the council.

Efforts to reform the Council began in 1979. In 2005, world leaders called for the Council to be "more broadly representative, efficient and transparent".

Senegalese President Macky Sall, chairman of the African Union, reiterated the call for two permanent seats, saying it was time to stop "relegating Africa to the margins of decision-making circles". Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said the war in Ukraine showed that "UN reform is essential if world peace is to be found".

Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados has called for the veto power to be removed from the five permanent members.

All General Assembly presidents have discussed Security Council reform in recent years.

This year, the General Assembly adopted one reform: Any permanent council member casting a veto must now appear before the assembly's 193 nations during a debate to explain why.

Richard Gowan, U.N. director of the International Crisis Group, called Biden's remarks on reform "a smart political gambit" that created a stir among diplomats and U.N. officials. The remarks, he said, reflect a U.S. concern that the council's credibility is waning — and that it serves American interests "to have a more-or-less functional council as an alternative to anarchy."

"China especially hates the idea that Japan and India could exploit reform discussions to secure permanent seats on the council," Gowen said. "So Beijing may end up blocking the entire process."

But he said, "Biden has sparked a discussion of reform that will run for at least a couple of years." Whether it ends in actual change or just more talk, remains to be seen.