[DeWilde]

I don't deny that, each country has done or has the capacity to commit atrocities. Some just do it less.

The third option isn't a fallacy if you are looking it from the perspective of that individual researcher who lives in a country that seeks to develop those weapons because its rivals are also developing them. They are thinking for their own safety and the safety for the people around them who live in that country. Would you do nothing if you know your efforts could potentially shield the people you love from harm? Or would you help build the system knowing that they might get misused, in the hopes that it at least protects you and the people dear to you?

EDIT: typos.

[maybeOneDay]

I do indeed make the choice to not work in the defence industry as opposed to helping building such systems. So in effect, yes I do nothing. I can't argue that the military does not to some level protect me - I do believe that in my (western EU) country the military and the arms trade is almost exclusively, right now, dedicated towards either atrocities, proxy wars, or selling to Saudi Arabia et al. Call me naive and argue that without these things my loved ones and I would be at risk, but I could never personally support the current system we have, and I question the degree to which those who believe they are doing good, on average, are in fact doing so.