In Civ5, what (global) negative combat modifiers do exist?
Solution 1:
If happiness falls below -10, you get a -33% combat modifier.
If you do not have enough strategic resources (less resources than units that require that resource), all units that need the resource get a -50% combat modifier.
I assume the combat modifiers from social policies apply also to you, if the AI civs have the appropriate social policies, but I never saw that in action. Most of these are also not strictly global, but depend partly on enemy/friendly territory or nearby units. The Total War social policy is global, if the AI researches it it should count against you.